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Biology
TURNER, James Aspinall. Remarks on the Linnaean Orders of Insects, Forming a Short and Familiar Introduction to the Study of Entomology.London : 1828
First edition of this introductory guide to entomology, a discipline that was "daily becoming more fashionable" (p. iii). Intended to acquaint the amateur hobbyist with the Linnean classifcation system, the work is beautifully augmented by illustrations of various insects on plants.
"During the first half of the nineteenth century, the new...Learn More
DARWIN, Charles. The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication.London : 1868
First edition, first issue, of the first of Darwin's works to use the famous evolutionary phrase, preceding by a year its first appearance in Origin of Species (fifth edition, 1869). "Survival of the fittest" was coined by the philosopher and sociologist Herbert Spencer on reading Origin and remains the most succinct summary of Darwin's theory of...Learn More
GALTON, Francis. Finger Prints.London : 1892
First edition of Galton's work designed to assist with classifying and indexing large numbers of fingerprints.
"The use of fingerprints for the identification of criminals had been advocated in 'Nature' in 1880 by both Henry Faulds and Sir William Herschel, but was put on a scientific basis only in Galton's book on Finger Prints, published...Learn More
POPPER, Karl, & John C. Eccles. The Self and Its Brain. With 66 Figures.London : 1977
First edition, presentation copy, inscribed on the front free endpaper to Popper's friend, the philosophical broadcaster Bryan Magee, "To Bryan, with love, from Karl. November 3rd, 1977".
By the 1970s, Popper and Magee (1930-2019) were friends and intellectual allies. Popper appeared twice on Magee's 1970 radio series Conversations with...Learn More
SCHRÖDINGER, Erwin. What Is Life? The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell, & Mind and Matter.Cambridge : 1967
A collected edition of two highly influential works by the great physicist, from the library of the philosophical broadcaster Bryan Magee (1930-2019), with his initials and the date of his first reading (All Souls, Oxford, October 1973), on the front free endpaper.
Magee and Schrödinger shared an interest in Schopenhauer: in his...Learn More
DARWIN, Charles; ROYER, Clémence (trans.). De l'origine des espèces ou des lois du progrès chez les êtres organisés.Paris : 1862
First edition in French, translated and edited by the self-taught theorist, feminist, and author Clémence Royer (1830-1902), together with a loosely inserted autograph letter signed by her. Her lengthy preface and extensive footnotes pre-staged the rise of social Darwinism and anticipated several of the issues Darwin himself would later consider...Learn More
DARWIN, Charles. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection,London : 1869
Fifth edition of "the most important biological book ever written" (Freeman), one of 2,000 copies. It was in this edition that Darwin first used the phrase "survival of the fittest", a term coined by Herbert Spencer.Learn More
DARWIN, Charles. The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex.London : 1871
First edition, first issue, containing the earliest instance of the word "evolution" in Darwin's work. It occurs on page 2 of Volume I, preceding the term's appearance in the sixth edition of the Origin of Species the following year. In the Descent, Darwin finally applied the Origin's theory of evolution to the development of...Learn More
DARWIN, Charles. Puteshestvie vokrug svet nakorable Bigl' ("Voyage Around the World on the Beagle").St Petersburg : 1865
Scarce first edition in Russian of Darwin's first published book, celebrated as the genesis of his theory of evolutionary biology. Among the earliest translations of the Voyage in any language, this edition attests to Darwin's popularity in Tsarist Russia.
Like Britain and France, Russia was a centre of pre-Darwinian research on...Learn More
WARREN, John Collins. Description of an Egyptian Mummy, Presented to the Massachusetts General Hospital; with an Account of the Operation of Embalming, in Ancient and Modern Times.Boston, Massachusetts : [1824]
First separate edition, from the advent of American Egyptomania. Initially objects of medical interest, mummies rapidly became linked with "a particular kind of either literal or symbolic revenge, with themes of reprisal, retribution, and retaliation... Throughout the nineteenth century, the ancient Egyptian mummy appears primarily as a sign of...Learn More
CHOMSKY, Noam. Aspects of the Theory of Syntax.Cambridge : 1965
First edition of the landmark work of generative grammar, the source of the "standard theory" of language acquisition, and among the most influential linguistic texts of the 20th century.Learn More
DARWIN, Charles. The Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection,London : 1872
Sixth edition, first issue. This is the last lifetime edition and the first Origin to use the term "evolution", earlier used by Darwin in The Descent of Man (1871). This copy has the publisher's blind stamp, "Presented by Mr Murray", on the title page.
The sixth edition includes a new chapter (VII) refuting the arguments of the Roman...Learn More
WATSON, James D. The Molecular Biology of the Gene.Harvard : 1964
A pre-publication draft typescript for one of the most popular and influential textbooks of molecular biology, first published in 1965. This is among the first drafts produced under the work's final title, reflecting Watson's instinctive analysis of the key features of modern genetics.
A decade after his groundbreaking research on the...Learn More
HUXLEY, Henrietta A., & Thomas. Poems.London : 1913
First edition, presented by Henrietta Huxley to Darwin's daughter and then from her to the Working Men's College in Great Ormond Street, where Thomas Henry Huxley taught in the 1880s.
Henrietta Litchfield (1843-1927), Darwin's eldest daughter to reach adulthood, was a valued part of his intellectual process: he discussed his theories with...Learn More
DARWIN, Charles. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection,London : 1859
First edition of "the most influential scientific work of the 19th century" (Horblit) and "certainly the most important biological book ever written" (Freeman). The initial 1,250 copies of Darwin's magnum opus prompted an intellectual revolution comparable to that of Newton or Copernicus.
While recognizable theories of evolution had been...Learn More
MAWE, John. The Linnaean System of Conchology, Describing the Orders, Genera, and Species of Shells, Arranged into Divisions and Families:London : 1823
First edition, the copy of the natural scientist William Wilson Saunders (1809-1879), with ownership signature, dated 2 January 1829, on the front pastedown. In 1833, Saunders was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society, to which the book is dedicated, and joined the fellowship of the Royal Society two decades later.
Born in Derbyshire,...Learn More
MAWE, John. The Voyager's Companion, or Shell Collector's Pilot; with Instructions and Directions where to find the finest Shells;London : 1825
Fourth edition, scarce in the original boards and significantly expanded from the third, with a longer chapter on recommendations for conchologists collecting in faraway parts of the world. The frontispiece, "arguably one of the most beautiful depictions of natural history objects in Georgian England" (Stilwell, p. 5), was likely hand-coloured by...Learn More
DARWIN, Charles. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection,London : 1859
First edition of "the most influential scientific work of the 19th century" (Horblit), bright and unrestored in the original cloth. The initial 1,250 copies of "the most important biological book ever written" (Freeman) prompted an intellectual revolution comparable to that of Newton or Copernicus.
While recognizable theories of evolution...Learn More
MEDICINE - WANG, Yonghao. Nüzi jiepou tu ("Pictorial Handbook of Female Physiology"); [together with] Nanzi jiepou tu ("Pictorial Handbook of Male Physiology").Shanghai : 1952
First editions. These paired illustrated handbooks were issued as part of an eight-book series widening access to essential medical knowledge. After 1949, the new government saw scientific education as a barometer of progress and modernity. The author (1917-2009) worked for the Shanghai Academy of Medicine and was at the forefront of efforts to...Learn More
TURING, Alan. The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis.London : 1952
First edition, offprint issue, association copy, owned by Turing's close friend Norman Routledge. Turing's only published work on biology used mathematical modelling to propose an explanation for the occurrence of asymmetrical form in nature. Morphogenesis was groundbreaking in both its ideas and its methodology and has had immense influence on...Learn More
